Meet Courtyard Marriott Chelsea — How Select Service Hotel Brands Won Over Manhattan

Earlier this month I attended the opening party for the new Courtyard Marriott Manhattan/Chelsea, a 273-room “sliver” hotel built from the ground up in New York’s once-flourishing Fur District. (If you visit, check out the clever stone reliefs of fox heads on a nearby building.) Read more

It’s Spring — in These NYC Hotel Lobbies (Even if it Still Feels Like Winter Outdoors)

I doubt I’m alone in saying I’ve been counting the hours, the minutes, the seconds to the arrival of spring.

By Siberian standards — but New York isn’t Irkutsk. And when you rack up the days that failed to break 30 degrees, couple them with more than 56 inches of snow and throw in a Polar Vortex or two, Winter 2013-14 was brutal.

Even if the snow doesn’t cease on March 20, we’ve crossed the seasonal divide.

To celebrate the official start of spring, I visited several midtown hotels known for their flowers, camera in hand. Looks like yellow is the color of spring this year.

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Looking for a Hotel Bargain? Try New York (Yes, New York)

Since this item posted Stayful, a site that brought Priceline strategies to boutique hotels, has joined the many sites that have fallen (details here). A shame. It was a neat idea.

No joke. The year is young, but so far 2014 New York hotel prices are trending lower than industry observers expected.

“Hotels in New York are not experiencing as high levels of occupancy as last year, at least from what we’re hearing anecdotally,” says Cheryl Rosner, co-founder and CEO of Stayful, a bidding website specializing in boutique hotel deals. “We were forecasting higher rates, but we’re not seeing them.” Read more

Who Knew? Men Are More Finicky About Hotel Room Colors Than Women A New Study Finds

What appeals to you when you see a hotel room? Your preferences may say as much about your gender and age as your driver’s license, according to a new study from the College of Hospitality and Technology Leadership at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manitee. Read more

What’s on View Across from Check-in? How the Quin Hotel Turned The Lobby Into an Art Gallery

where ny art 2 The lobby showpiece at The Quin hotel is an imposing 15-foot video art wall pieced together from flatpanel screens.

At its debut last fall, the hotel touted the flexibility of video art and announced the wall’s content would change like an art gallery, veering from original work commissioned by the hotel to pieces from, well, any era.

We’ve heard that one before, but the Quin meant it. When I stopped by this past weekend, the wall’s content was once again different from my previous visits. Read more

Keeping Goldilocks Happy: Four Seasons Hotels Rolls Out New Customized Beds

Guests at five-star hotels expect a cushy bed when they’re tucked in for the night. Still, the vaunted Four Seasons mattress comes with an extra sprinkling of fairy dust. Read more